The changes that took place in the coffee sector in the 1990s as a result of market de-regulation, IBC extinction and commercial opening gave a new direction to Brazilian coffee-growing. However, in spite of these changes, the Brazilian coffee participation in the foreign market has been declining in the last years. Within this context, an emergence of leaders who are increasingly taking over the market, has been observed since the late 1990s. One questions, then, to what extent the strategic vision of coffee exporters might not be jeopardizing the development of this sector. Based on the strategic measurement model, the Balanced Scorecard by Kaplan and Norton, this work aimed to verify whether the strategies adopted by the exporting organizations are related to choices that differentiate them from the rest, as well as to detect the mechanisms used by them to obtain a larger participation in the market. The organizations analyzed are among those accounting for 80% of the exported volume of Brazilian green coffee in 1998, including co-ops, organizational units, groups and multinationals and transnationals, located in Vitória (ES), Santos (SP), Varginha (MG), Espírito Santo do Pinhal (SP) and São Sebastião do Paraíso (MG). From the tabulation and analysis of indicators obtained from directly questioning the exporters, it was verified that the exporting organizations made choices that differentiated their paths in search of their goals, based on factors beyond operational efficiency and quality. Product differentiation was observed among the organizations analyzed as a way of aggregating value to coffee. Hence, for these organizations, scale and, consequently, a larger participation in the market by volume exported, are not, themselves, determining factors of profitability. In the definition of markets, the strategy of differentiation was also observed. Strategic choice making was also verified in the percentage of customers (coffee roasters and wholesalers) the companies had. These choices are related to how each company sees risk minimization within the process of marketing, which is differentiated by the companies' characteristics. Thus, certain choices, made by the organizations which, at first, could incur in loss of customers, are justified by the specific characteristics of each organization. The results obtained helped to make evident the existence of a strategic vision defined by choices and its importance for the growth of the Brazilian coffee exporting sector. It was concluded that each organization has unique processes and goals being, therefore, unique in its strategies, without rendering impossible the achievement of favorable results by all.